When winterizing a swimming pool, the conventional skimmer, mounted on the side of the pool and communicating with a filter and water recirculating system, has to be drained of all water to prevent damage to the filter and associated pipes and pump in the recirculation system due to freezing during the winter months.
To drain the standing water in the skimmer, it was first necessary to drain the water from the pool until the pool water reached a level below the inlet to the skimmer.
In order to conserve water, it has been proposed to provide a cover for the skimmer inlet, whereby the interior of the skimmer is sealed off from the pool water so that the skimmer can be drained without first draining water from the pool. While these covers have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, they are characterized by certain disadvantages, such as not being universally mountable on various types of skimmers, and requiring a number of bolts and screws to secure the cover on a flange surrounding the skimmer inlet.
After considerable research and experimentation, the skimmer closure of the present invention has been devised and is an improvement over heretofore employed skimmer covers in that the closure of the present invention can be mounted on a wide variety of pool skimmers without requiring the use of bolts and screws for securing the closure to the skimmer flange surrounding the inlet, which flange many skimmers do not have.